Discussion
blearyeyedboy said:
And there's the fallacy in today's climate: "I'll just spend £350 on this and I'll have a good car."
If I owned a 2000 Ka, I'd run it til it failed. And if the cost to fix it is bigger than the cost to get another one (i.e., the cost of another one minus the scrap value you can recoup) then I'd ditch it. Unless you're attached to a car, it's simply not worth doing otherwise. If someome has the time and skills to fix it yourself, fair play- but I don't.
If I owned a £500 snotter, I wouldn't spend £300 changing the cambelt.
And the fallacy in that argument is that the cars you can buy for the cost of fixing your own will undoubtedly be suffering from the same problem, whether it's rust or needing a timing belt change. This is something that people just can't seem to understand, yet is blatantly obvious. Once you have spent the money on fixing a particular problem, it's unlikely to need more attention for a considerable period, yet another cheap banger could have even more problems lurking. "Better the devil you know" is very true in this case, unless the car really is beyond reasonable repair.If I owned a 2000 Ka, I'd run it til it failed. And if the cost to fix it is bigger than the cost to get another one (i.e., the cost of another one minus the scrap value you can recoup) then I'd ditch it. Unless you're attached to a car, it's simply not worth doing otherwise. If someome has the time and skills to fix it yourself, fair play- but I don't.
If I owned a £500 snotter, I wouldn't spend £300 changing the cambelt.
Mr2Mike said:
And the fallacy in that argument is that the cars you can buy for the cost of fixing your own will undoubtedly be suffering from the same problem, whether it's rust or needing a timing belt change. This is something that people just can't seem to understand, yet is blatantly obvious. Once you have spent the money on fixing a particular problem, it's unlikely to need more attention for a considerable period, yet another cheap banger could have even more problems lurking. "Better the devil you know" is very true in this case, unless the car really is beyond reasonable repair.
Glad to have finally found someone who shares my view on this.Scrapping a car for a cambelt change seems particularly stupid, given that its likely any £500 replacement will also need.. a cambelt change.
Mr2Mike said:
And the fallacy in that argument is that the cars you can buy for the cost of fixing your own will undoubtedly be suffering from the same problem, whether it's rust or needing a timing belt change. This is something that people just can't seem to understand, yet is blatantly obvious. Once you have spent the money on fixing a particular problem, it's unlikely to need more attention for a considerable period, yet another cheap banger could have even more problems lurking. "Better the devil you know" is very true in this case, unless the car really is beyond reasonable repair.
Tis a very good point Mike. The problem is people want the newest 'everything' right now and hence why most get consigned to the scrap heap or crusher because the nice Mr. Salesman can do them the latest 'whatever' for only £200 per month.Just thinking back 15 years to some of my old cars and even though they were all at least a decade old when bought, I never had anything major go wrong with them, it was just wear and tear stuff and maybe the odd electrical item or sensor. Had the odd bubble of rust here and there but nothing that couldn't be sorted out fairly cheaply and then it was happy and depreciation-less motoring.
Fox- said:
Mr2Mike said:
And the fallacy in that argument is that the cars you can buy for the cost of fixing your own will undoubtedly be suffering from the same problem, whether it's rust or needing a timing belt change. This is something that people just can't seem to understand, yet is blatantly obvious. Once you have spent the money on fixing a particular problem, it's unlikely to need more attention for a considerable period, yet another cheap banger could have even more problems lurking. "Better the devil you know" is very true in this case, unless the car really is beyond reasonable repair.
Glad to have finally found someone who shares my view on this.Scrapping a car for a cambelt change seems particularly stupid, given that its likely any £500 replacement will also need.. a cambelt change.
Sometimes manufacturers make remarkable improvements to the rust resistance of their cars. About 20 years ago I bought a 3 year old BX GT. Within 2 years all the door panels had rotted through and some brake pipes had rusted to the point of leaking. I bought a BX GTi, just a few years younger, with plastic some plastic panels. After 12 years I sold it without a speck of rust anywhere.
My wife's '95 MR2 has just one spot of rust on the driver's door. MY '93 Mit GTO has no rust at all.
My wife's '95 MR2 has just one spot of rust on the driver's door. MY '93 Mit GTO has no rust at all.
I was following a 58 plate Merc. Sprinter that had loads of rust patches all round the back doors and the bottoms of the plastic mouldings on the sides. In comparison, my '04 plate Vivaro is only showing a little bit of rust on the lower corner of the back door, but only on the inside of the door thanks to a cheap respray at some point in it's life. The rest is perfect, even the underside is spotless.
m44kts said:
I was following a 58 plate Merc. Sprinter that had loads of rust patches all round the back doors and the bottoms of the plastic mouldings on the sides. In comparison, my '04 plate Vivaro is only showing a little bit of rust on the lower corner of the back door, but only on the inside of the door thanks to a cheap respray at some point in it's life. The rest is perfect, even the underside is spotless.
mercedes vans are pretty notorious for rust...we knew someone who owned the smaller one (forgot what they're called now), it was only 2-3 years old and had bad rust in some spotsMr2Mike said:
And the fallacy in that argument is that the cars you can buy for the cost of fixing your own will undoubtedly be suffering from the same problem, whether it's rust or needing a timing belt change. This is something that people just can't seem to understand, yet is blatantly obvious. Once you have spent the money on fixing a particular problem, it's unlikely to need more attention for a considerable period, yet another cheap banger could have even more problems lurking. "Better the devil you know" is very true in this case, unless the car really is beyond reasonable repair.
I think that's right, to an extent at least. You have to weigh up the pros and cons at the time really.BliarOut said:
Rust? You don't know rust til you've braked in a MKI Escort and the headlights both fall out 
Modern cars don't rust badly in comparison
Pah, my A40 headlight used to shoot out on a regular basis. I knew it had gone too far when I jacked it up in the hole for said purpose in the centre of the sill and instead of rising, the car bent.Modern cars don't rust badly in comparison
LuS1fer said:
BliarOut said:
Rust? You don't know rust til you've braked in a MKI Escort and the headlights both fall out
Modern cars don't rust badly in comparison
Pah, my A40 headlight used to shoot out on a regular basis. I knew it had gone too far when I jacked it up in the hole for said purpose in the centre of the sill and instead of rising, the car bent.Modern cars don't rust badly in comparison
This is what I'm talking about 300bhp/ton said:
I think that's right, to an extent at least. You have to weigh up the pros and cons at the time really.
Well yes, if you are lucky enough to find a genuinely better car (e.g. you know it's history and can get it for mates rates) then you'd be daft not to. If you are simply going to buy the next cheap banger that you find then it's car roulette. You can check it for obvious faults, but these cars rarely come with any history and there is probably a good reason it's being moved on (good for the seller I mean, usually not so good for the buyer).
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